New Britain Loses Police Brutality Suit

NEW BRITAIN — A federal jury earlier this month awarded $80,625 to the man who accused a city police officer of excessive force during an arrest in 2007.

The officer, Jeffrey Walsh, was subsequently fired, and then lost a bid to get his job back through arbitration.

Christopher Roguz had accused Walsh of slamming his head into a wall and then hitting him with a nightstick while he was handcuffed. Walsh has maintained that he was stopping Roguz from attacking another officer during the arrest.

Roguz was satisfied that the jury sided with him, said David W. Bush, his attorney.

"He feels vindicated that the jury thought what Walsh did was wrong. He maintained all along that he was a victim of excessive force," Bush said Tuesday.

Corporation Counsel John King said Tuesday evening that since Roguz had been seeking more than $300,000, the city was satisfied by the verdict. King also noted that the court directed the plaintiff - not the city - to pay court costs in the case.

Walsh and another officer were dispatched to Roguz's apartment because of a loud argument. Walsh reported that Roguz was drunk and belligerent, and that Roguz spit on him while being arrested. Walsh has acknowledged hitting him with a baton after handcuffing him, but has insisted he was aiming at an arm or leg.

Police supervisors didn't believe Walsh's account of how Roguz ended up with a broken nose and a head wound serious enough to require seven staples. Walsh was fired for striking a handcuffed prisoner with a baton and for failing to file a report about what happened. In 2010, an arbiter sided with the city, citing a doctor's conclusion that Roguz's injury had to be caused by a direct strike to the head – not by a glancing blow.

Police charged Walsh with second-degree assault, but the case was dismissed and the city had to pay him about $50,000 in legal fees. The city last year paid the ex-officer another $20,000 to settle a federal suit claiming police commanders acted unfairly against him in the case.

Roguz's lawsuit named the city and Walsh as defendants; because Walsh was acting in his capacity as a municipal employee, the city will pay the entire judgment, Bush said. A jury in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport issued the judgment June 5 after a two-day trial.